


Just a Shell

by Peaceandunity (UnityisKey)



Series: It's a journey called life [1]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Bad Parenting, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Court, Drugging, Eating Disorders, Flashbacks, Kidnapping, Mentions of Rape, Mentions of Suicide, Minor Character Death, Murder, PTSD, Pedophilia, Preseries, Sibling Bonding, it's the 90's, mentions of racisim, trial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-12-31
Packaged: 2019-07-03 15:44:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 11
Words: 12,851
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15821976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UnityisKey/pseuds/Peaceandunity
Summary: The story began in March of 1992 with their kidnapping, but it didn't end when they escaped. What had started as a sibling bonding experience turned into hell on Earth.Follow Aaron Hotchner and Jason Gideon in the BAU's early days as they try to save a kid who has the whole world against them.it's done but super bad cuz I wanted to finish it while it was still 2018. I'm editing it as you read this :)





	1. So it Begins

**Author's Note:**

> I have some chapters written so this will probs get updated. This will turn into crossovers at some point but that is far down the road. and will be posted as a separate story in the series.  
> If I got a fact wrong or was confusing, shoot me a message and I will do what I can to change it (the only reason I wouldn't would be if a major plot point revolves around it. in which case I will say 'movie magic')

“Please state your name for the record.”  
“Maryanne Wright.”  
“And do you swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth?”  
“I swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth.”  
“Then please tell the court what happened starting with the events of March 22nd, 1991,” the lawyer intoned.  
I knew this was coming. I had for months I had gone over the story so many times that I could, and often did, recite it in my sleep. Now that it was here. I didn’t know what to say. It must have shown on my face for the Judge whispered to take a deep breath. I did and made the mistake of looking at the other side of the courtroom. So much had happened and I didn’t know where to begin. My breathing hitched and I shut my eyes before I lost my nerve completely. I fidgeted in the hard wooden seat and made the mistake of looking at the courtroom. My eyes automatically scanned for faces that I knew wouldn’t be there, but hoped would be anyway. Instead I notice cameras and reporters practically drooling at the thought of hope this case could boost their careers, people that didn’t belong, that wouldn’t get it. My eyes then settled on the drawn faces of the two men that finally rescued me from hell; the only people that I wanted that were there. They were trying hard to look casual but they were glancing around more than I was, and it looked like they had their hands close to their guns/radios and they had taken seats near the front and at an isle, they were preparing for the worst. I finally looked at the front right of the room and into the one face that made my blood run cold and my stomach tighten. The face that made the months of anger, hate and fear come hurtling toward the surface of my carefully constructed walls. The face my nightmares.  
“Ms. Wright, whenever you’re ready,” the judge says inclining his head. Blinking I pull my eyes from the devils cold smile and take note of the three exits; one to my left, one to the right, one directly in front. No windows. Six police officers in the room, each holding pepper spray, a taser and a handgun. All holstered. Two were with the accused, one at each exit and one in the audience, out of uniform but armed. Three doctors, two paramedics, four psychologists, six lawyers, mine the accused and four more in attendance. Two FBI agents still cataloging the those in attendance (better than I ever could) their presence allowing me to breathe just a little easier.  
“Just start from the beginning,” My lawyer had told me countless times. “Just tell them what happened and if it helps tell it like you’re remembering it from a book.”  
I can do this. I’ve been through worse. And I had made it. Being here proved that. I had to do this, one last time. If not for yourself then for her.  
“I’m ready.”


	2. From bad to worse

Bang. “Ugh.” and the sound of a bag hitting the floor.

“Hey Short Stack. How was school?” Maryanne called from her place on the living room sofa as she turns the page of her well-worn copy of Lord of the Rings. “Ugh,” her sister sighed walking into the room and flopping onto the couch. “Who invented chemistry? and who decided it was a ‘mandatory elective’?”

“Psychopaths?” Maryanne shrugged without looking up from her book. The more she acted like her sister talking to her was normal the better the odds of the event repeating itself became.

“Haha very funny. But seriously," she said turning to face her sister.

“Hey you’re the one who wanted to be an overachieving child prodigy and ended up at nerd school. I tried to tell you it wasn’t worth it. But do you listen to your big sis? Nope,” she said popping her P. Mary takes a moment to study her sister and take in her swallow cheeks, pale skin, and tired eyes. How thin her hair is, even doused product such as it was, and how her once overly crisp and tidy uniform hung wrinkled from her frame.

“Marrryyyyy we can’t all be layabouts like you.”

“And why ever not? It is far more fun. No one ever expects you to amount to anything. So when you do it’s a huge surprise and in the meantime, no one’s pressuring you to study or do much of anything.”

“Mmmnf," Faith replied trying, and failing, to stifile a laugh in the crook of her arm.

“Come on Faith. How about we go out to the movies? It’s Friday night and next week’s Spring Break. So don’t tell me you’ve got homework.” Mary says setting her book aside,

“But mom-”

“Won’t be home long enough to argue. She’s visiting grandma tonight. She was stopping in long enough to change close and leave us pizza money. Come on. You study too much. You’re still 11. Even if I’m the only one that seems to remember that.” Maryanne says muttering the last part.

“Fine. But I get to pick the movie!” She grins leaping up from the couch.

“Lemme guess. Aladdin?”

“Shhhh. Not telling!” she laughs bounding from the room to, presumably, change out of her uniform and nap before going out. Door closes. Opens. Feet pad across the floor. The door opens and closes. Silence. Gagging. Toilet flushing. Sink running. Door opens. Feet pad back across the floor and then another door closing. And reason number two for this spontaneous outing. And she had been having one of her better days too. Faith rarely talked when she got home from school after a briefly grunted hello before she listlessly went to her room and studied until dinner, only then emerging from her room and then just long enough to appease her mother before claiming homework and disappearing until she left for school the next morning. The cycle stuck on loop. With the occasional 3 am cry fest/ bathroom meeting when she thought everyone to be abed. It didn’t matter that Mary had already seen Aladdin. She’d see it a thousand times if she never had to hear her sister cry when she thought no one could hear her again. Maybe she was finally getting her sister back. At least a little. After a year of walking on eggshells and six months of ‘have to study sorry byes’ she was finally getting her baby sister back. That little kid that drew on her face when she was napping, the kid whose tantrums were the talk of the town to that very day and who could sweet talk just about anybody into just about anything. The kid she protected from the world as best she could and managed to fail so spectacularly. Maryanne crossed her fingers and prayed that her sister would never cry when she thought no one could hear again. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_**Present Day** _

I stare above the audience’s head as I search for the words to start my story. Breathe in. Find Hotchner and Gideon in the crowd. Breathe out before looking at the back wall again. Breathe out. And start to speak for I couldn’t bear to look anyone in the eye. In spite of everything that followed this moment in time, all the crap, sleepless nights and terrible days, this was the hardest to remember. It was the last time I had hope, that I felt it flare up in my chest and threaten to swallow me up. Not that I would have minded. I wished every night that I could wake up and be back at that moment. That time I felt warmth in my chest that didn’t signify a need for a hospital. I took a deep breath before continuing and shut my mind off completely, working solely on auto-pilot.

“My sister came home from school and I asked her if she wanted to go to the movies. She’d been bogged down with homework and tests and I thought getting her out of the house would be a nice change of pace. Our mom was busy going to the hospital that evening to visit our grandmother and her friends already had plans. She left to get changed and I got my shoes on and my wallet, and then our- mom-came home and agreed to take us.”

“Why did you start getting ready if you didn’t know your mom was going to say yes?” The lawyer asked.

“I figured it wouldn’t hurt to get ready. My sister’s puppy dog eyes had yet to steer us wrong.”

________________________________________________________________________

_**March 1992** _

“Two tickets for Aladdin please,” Faith said to the bored looking cashier as she slid her money over.

“Thank you. Enjoy the movie.”

“You too,” Mary responded before immediately internally cringing and making her way into the rest of the theater.

“I am an idiot please bury me now,” she muttered to her sister while they waited in line for popcorn. It wasn’t that bad.”

“I said you too. They said ‘enjoy the movie’ and I responded ‘you too’,” she puts her head in her hands. “One large popcorn and two medium cokes please.” “Here you go. Enjoy,” the cashier says handing over the items.

“You too," Maryanne said as she took the items being handed to her, whispering "damn it,” once out of earshot and then grumbling when her sister just laughs at her and sits down conveniently out of sight from anyone that they might recognize. Seeing classmates in public was always awkward at best and awful at worst after all. “

Traitor,” she muttered scanning the crowd and just barely managing to turn her head in time from being noticed when she recognized someone. After the last time… _best not make a target of yourself_. The lights dimmed and the movie started. _Finally_. At It’s a Whole New World she looks over and finds a nauseated looking sister. “You okay?”

She mouthed back "Sick.“

“Wanna step out?” Faith starts to shake her head but immediately her hand flew to her mouth and she nodded, allowing Mary to lead her out of the theater and then to a bench outside. While Faith took a deep breath and held her head between her knees, Mary rubbed soothing circles on her sister’s back and looking up toward the quarter moon only sort of registering the opening of a side door where a theater attendant was leaving. Her first mistake. Her second was then dismissing him entirely the third was ignoring the warning bells of recognizing his face from somewhere in favor of asking her sister how she was doing. Then a car door opens and a trunk pops.


	3. Calling the Calvary

“Yes. Yes. I’m watching it right now. Yes. I understand. Of course … we’ll be there,” Gideon sighed as he hung up the phone.  
“Who was that?” Asked his partner, Aaron Hotchner.  
“Who do you think? He wants us to turn on channel 6,” he said heading out of their glorified closet of an office and into the break room across the hall knowing his partner would follow and turned on the news.  
“-disgusting, Rick,” comes from the TV when they get the channel up.  
“It most certainly is, Donna. The Moorestown Malison, as he’s come to be called, does seem to have a partner in the footage the police just released in light of the most recent kidnapping.” They go on to show the footage of the kidnapping. And although grainy Gideon can make out the two girls exiting the theater and going to sit down. He can almost make out another figure at the edge of the cameras visual field but it’s too dark to be clear on whether there was a third person present. He watches in silence as a car pulled up and two men got out and proceeded to grab the girls one slumping immediately and the other managing a brief struggle before both had their hands and feet bound and a gag placed in their mouths. The video cuts out at the car pulling away. Gideon notes that the whole thing takes less than three minutes. “From what the police have revealed witnesses saw the two girls left from the movie theater. The one appeared to be ill, while the other led her out. The footage then shows them sitting on the bench and the one standing up and turning when the car pulls up and a man gets out another man appears from behind the two girls before they both start attacking them. It also appears that one girl managed to land a few punches before falling unconscious, that’s something new.”  
“Well Rick, many aspects of this video are new. For one the appearance of a partner, for another the abduction of TWO victims, one capable of fighting back, however briefly.”  
“That most certainly is curious, Donna. Have the police said anything?”

“No, Rick. Aside from being on the lookout for a gold early 80’s Camaro with North Carolina tags, nothing. Whether from a lack of leads or because they’re closing in is undetermined, but so far there hasn’t been word of any arrests made in connection to this case, so I would go with the former.” The newscasters went on but Gideon turned off the TV having seen what he needed to.  
“Gideon, we’re already backed up. We have a case in Oregon and another in Connecticut. They don’t need us. They have more than enough, including a license plate-”  
“Of a stolen car. Come on Aaron. These are kids. Two little girls who must be scared to death right now.” Seeing that he had gained Aarons attention he continued trying to convince him into taking the case. “What’s the point of this if we can’t stop these monsters from tearing apart a family. Apparently, the mom was visiting her dying mother at the hospital after dropping her eleven and fourteen-year-old daughters off at the movies. Their father seems virtually nonexistent because he’s constantly traveling for work. Think of the family Aaron! They don’t need any more heartache. You know what he does to his victims! The appearance of a partner can only make him that much more dangerous!!”  
Aaron just sighed rubbing his face and asked, “So, which of us is driving then?”  
“Neither. The Bureau believes us worthy of a driver so we can talk shop on the ride.” That got a grin out of both men for it was hard to discuss a case and drive -a point they brought up in almost every report they wrote, directly after needing more help.  
“I’ll meet you at the car. I have to call Haley. She’s not going to be thrilled that i’m cancelling our first date.” Gideon just grasps his arm before exiting the room.  
________________________________________________________________________  
“So, what do we know about the UNSUBS?” Hotchner asks a while later from his place in the backseat of a 4 door black sedan, files strewn across his and Gideon’s laps.  
“Not much. Until today the state was working under the assumption that it was one guy, and they only knew that much from the way the bodies were dumped. Guy’s meticulous. Low-risk victims, taken at night from crowded venues, all female, ages ranging from 10-13. Similar builds, all top of their class, described as ‘bright and hard working.’ No prints, no defensive wounds, and until now, no witnesses. Most families didn’t even know their kid was missing until they turned up dead they thought they were at a friends house or had run away.”  
“So what’s different about these girls? Only one’s their type. Why risk exposure? The only thing constant here is that it’s at night and the victims are female. The area was secluded, they took two people instead of one, the one appears vastly outside of their type as noticed by the ability to fight back, and they were caught on camera.”  
“That’s our job to find out. I’ll take the station if you want to check out the latest scene? Then we can meet back up to do interviews?”  
Hotchner nods absently going back over what there was of a timeline. “The victims seem to be turning up about 48 hours after they were last seen. That leaves us-” he glances at his watch, “36? Less if they rush knowing we’re onto them.”  
“We’ll find them, Aaron,” Gideon says looking over his own copies of the files. “How’s Haley?”  
“Fine.” Gideon looks over to him. “Not happy that our date is canceled but happy that we’re taking the case. She said she won’t hold it against me if we find them.”  
“Then we better find them. Wouldn’t want to make her upset now.”


	4. Panic! at the Courtroom

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anything taking place in the courtroom is the present-everything else takes place prior to that.

“We got our tickets for the movie and some snacks then went to get seats. A bit into the movie I looked over at my sister and it looked like she wasn't feeling well,” She said her throat tightening. Pull yourself together. This isn’t even the hard part. Too many people. All staring. He’s staring.   
“What told you that your sister wasn’t feeling well? It was presumably a dark theater and you wouldn’t have been able to talk?” One of the lawyers asked looking at a folder in their hands.   
“Her one arm was trembling a bit and she was clutching her stomach and had drawn her knees to her chest. It may not have been much to a casual onlooker but to me, it was practically a neon sign,” Maryanne responded distractedly, struggling not to lose control of the story, forcing herself to breathe steadily as her hands began shaking.  
Breathe in...2...3….4….5 Hold…2…..3...4….5 Out….2...3...4...5 And repeat 2...3...4...5....  
“Once we were…. Once we were outside, I sat her on a bench.” Breathe!! You do her no credit if you meltdown like this. Pull yourself together! She forced herself to take a few slow deep breaths before continuing the tale voice trembling only to those that were listening for it. “I looked around a bit and noticed a guy smoking. He… he was wearing a uniform of the theater so I didn’t pay him any mind.”   
Maryanne could still picture the scene with perfect clarity. See the glow of the cigarette and feel the light breeze on her face as her sister struggled not to vomit from her place next to her on the bench. FOCUS, WRIGHT, FOCUS!! Maryanne thought to herself as she remembered trying to place the man's face before eventually giving up to focus on her sister.  
“ I’m...I’m not… I’m not too sure on exactly the order of what happened next. It um…. All kinda happened... kinda all ha-happened a bit... A bit fast,” she stammered out. She could feel herself losing the memory, her heart beating ever more frantically, her whole body starting to shake, every fiber over her body screaming at her to run. Run as far away as she could and to never stop. Run away from the violence, screaming that she hasn’t stopped hearing. Run from chafed wrists and sore arms, run from the hunger and muted sobs. Run from the guilt. Run from the smell of cigarettes and old fast food, from too big hands and the overwhelming sense of being too slow too scared too slow.  
“Are you all right? Ma'am? Maryanne?” Someone called her name but she couldn’t hear them over the sound of her heart beating and dead sister’s screaming, begging, sobbing, silence. The silence was the loudest of them all. She was hyperventilating, panicked, frozen in time until she felt someone grab her arm.  
"Don’t touch me… don’t touch me!!” She said frantically jerking her arm back. It was too hot, too many people were watching, the room once spacious was suddenly far too small. She could feel his eyes on her. Feel him staring. Someone was speaking. Someone in attendance. Oh god… oh god… She wanted to run from that voice and those eyes, but she couldn’t she was frozen, slipping, losing control of the story they were becoming too much like memories. And then she was bolting out of the room, making it to the other side of the doors before collapsing, unaware of being followed or that anyone was speaking to her for several long moments.  
“-Mary. Mary. It’s alright. It’s alright. I need you to breathe with me okay. In and out. Good. Breathe. There you go just breathe Maryanne, breathe,” Gideon said from his crouched position in front of her. “It’s alright. Take your time, just focus on breathing, it’s alright. He can’t hurt you. It’s alright. You’re safe now. It’s okay.” Maryanne jerks away from him glaring. Safe. He thinks I’m safe? She thinks to herself. How could he think that she was safe?  
“Safe, you think I’m safe now? You suits are all the same, you think just because I’m out of that house I’m free now? That just because I’m no longer chained to a radiator that means I’m no longer a prisoner? My sister’s dead Agent Gideon. My mother shipped me off to a school where I was abused, constantly. Just because they’re in chains doesn’t mean that I’m safe. Just because you have a gun doesn’t mean I’m protected. This is my life now Gideon. You caught the bad guys, congratulations. But you were a little late in saving the damsels from distress. But go on, pat yourself on the back like I didn’t bury the only person who’s ever loved me, like my hands don’t shake, like I can’t go out at night, or to the movies, or sleep without a light on, like the smell of cigarettes doesn’t cause me to panic. Like I’m not broken. You caught the bad guys, but you were too late, I was already dead,” she finishes in an almost whisper, the anger nearly gone from her body as exhaustion laced with anxiety induced paranoia takes its place. The past at the forefront of her mind as she makes her way back towards the trial.   
“Maryanne-” Gideon manages to get out before being cut off.  
“Let’s just finish this so I can forget it,” she says before she enters the courtroom with a nod to the judge when asked if she was okay, retaking her earlier position on the stand. You can do this. It’s alright. Just put them away so they can’t hurt anyone else. No one else should lose their lives to these monsters for as long as there is breath in your lungs. It’s a story, it’s someone else. It’s not you, it’s a story. It’s not you, it’s a story. It’s not you, it’s a story. Okay. Just look at the back wall. Don’t look at the jury, or the cops, or the judge or anybody. Just look at the wall.  
“If we may resume the proceedings?” The judge asked with a raised brow to the crowd, waiting for them to settle down before nodding at Maryanne, “whenever you’re ready.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! the next chapter will be up in a few days.  
> let me know what you think! (Or of any glaring consistency errors)


	5. It doesn't add up

"Uggh.”   
Mary frowned when she turned to look at her sister and saw that she was shivering and coated in sweat, “you okay?”   
“Just… cold?” Faith said pulling her too thin arms around herself.  
“Okay, hold on a second,” she said as she pulled off her jacket and draped it over Faith’s shoulders, freezing for a moment she cautiously looked around the empty parking lot hands as her hands grasped her sister shoulders more firmly. Something’s wrong. She thought and forced herself to slow down and look again for what her subconscious was trying to tell her. The employee was gone. Had she heard him go back inside? She heard a footstep behind her and watched Faith’s eyes went wide in the same moment. She whipped around knocking the arm of a man a head taller than hers out of the way. She barely had time to notice his beat-up jeans, old sneakers and that the hood of his dark sweatshirt obscured his face before she heard a strangled cry behind her. She made her final mistake when she turned from her assailant to look at her sister as she fell to the ground the employee from earlier pulling an emptied syringe from her neck.  
In that moment Mary felt something pierce her skin and screamed, jerking away and pushing him with all she had. The syringe fell to the ground and shattered a moment to late having already been emptied of its contents. She continued to scream for all she was worth, fighting her assailants even as her moves started to become sluggish and her thoughts slowed, her mouth struggling to make sounds, adrenaline and body memory the only reasons she wasn’t unconscious yet. Someone must have heard her. Someone would come, or at least call for the police. Every minute counted. Every minute she could give to the authorities was a minute more she had to live. Make them bleed. She thought. They can do DNA or something on blood right? She bit down hard on the hand covering her mouth her nails dug themselves into his skin, desperate to make him let go or bleed, she thought she saw red before she lost the battle for consciousness and subscummed to the darkness hoping it made a difference.  
______________________________________________________________________________  
“Agent Gideon with the FBI,” Gideon said as he showed his badge at the front desk and rubbed a hand over his face in frustration as the detective in charge of the case was alerted of his arrival. They were wasting time, if only they had more agents like they had been begging the director for. There was that guy Rossi that he’d met a few weeks back, he would be perfect for the job, the guy picked up profiling like he was born for it. But apparently, there weren’t enough serial killers to make another person necessary ‘And you should be lucky that there are more than one of you’ he thought sarcastically quoting the directors latest response to his and Hotchner’s request. At least we don’t have to drive and strategize anymore.   
“Agent Gideon?” A detective asks coming to stand next to him. “Detective Rawlings, thanks for coming,” the detective said as she shook Gideon’s hand. “Where’s your partner?”  
“Agent Hotchner went ahead to look at the latest crime scene while I got us set up here. He’ll join us when he’s done looking at it and then we’ll interview the families.”  
“If you think it will help,” she shrugged. “We cleared out a conference room if you need anything else just let us know.” She led him to a small room with a round table in the center and a TV with a VCR in the corner and gestured for him to enter.  
“For now just all the info you have on the UNSUBS and a chalkboard,” Gideon said as he put his copy of the files on the table. Detective Rawlings motioned to a cop and relayed Gideon’s requests.  
“Someone will be up with those shortly, in the meantime, what do you want from me? I can’t just stand around here doing nothing.”  
“Tell me about the families, and what evidence you’ve collected so far, the files we have weren’t very thorough.”  
_________________________________________________________________________________

“Hey Aaron, find anything?” Gideon said looking up from the newly arrived box of evidence to door where a harassed looking Hotchner was entering.  
“The cameras were only installed recently so they might not have known about them, the attendant that called it in remembered hearing screaming and was able to give a description of the perps, the ones hood moved enough for his face to be seen, they were prepared, Jason, at least one of the girls was being stalked, the older one may have surprised them but the rest of it screams well organized and highly planned.”  
“But they messed up this time, they didn’t release it but they have blood and a partial print from the broken syringe, plus a witness, and video.”  
“Any hits on it?”  
“They sent it as priority but the labs only just adopted blood testing and their fingerprints haven’t been digitized yet. And even if they do manage to finish the testing in time it will only help us confirm that it’s him after the fact. And is useless if they go elsewhere and get caught.”  
“They still haven’t gotten that database all the techs were raving about up and running? Codes or something?”  
“CODIS and the software's mostly done but there were privacy concerns, it’s stuck in the courts.”  
“Even when we catch a break we don’t catch a break.”  
“We’ll get them Aaron, and they’ll suffocate under the weight of the evidence we’ve collected.”  
“So, what do we know?”  
“6 victims including the Wright sisters, excluding Maryanne the other 5 are 10-15 years old, caucasian, top of their classes, several have even skipped grades and the others go to private schools, all well liked by their peers and teachers, they all participate in afterschool activities, parents are all upper-middle class doctory lawyer types, well respected in their fields and seem to be fairly absentee hiring nannies or babysitters for the most part. As far as anyone can tell none of the families had ever crossed paths, even being from the same area and running in similar circles, though a few of them knew of at least one of the others from mutual friends and the like. Maryanne is a freshman at the local public school, averages C’s in most of her classes, doesn’t really participate in clubs, wrestled last year but didn’t this year, played some field hockey but doesn’t seem to have stuck with it, has a few friends but they don’t seem to be that close, teachers say she’s quiet and was bullied in the past but ever since the perpetrators moved or were sent elsewhere she’s pretty much left alone. Apparently, she can be quite inventive when under pressure.”  
“Well, she did scream her head off and then bite the perp hard enough to draw blood while watching her sister be shoved into the trunk of a car while having been drugged.”  
“The thing is they were prepared for her. She wasn’t just collateral, they had a second syringe with enough of the drug in it to knockout someone that has 50 pounds on their other vics.”  
“This just doesn’t make any sense, the others were all kidnapped, raped, and then murdered, and they’re all the exact same type which is consistent with preferential rapists, but then they just change their MO by taking someone that’s the exact opposite of their type and two at the same time, and they’re normally more careful about witnesses, this seems more...opportunist than the others.”  
“But they knew exactly where they were going to be, that there would be two of them and that they would leave the theater early. Which suggests planned.”  
“It’s like they got over excited… hey Jason, did either of the girls buy any food while they were there?”  
“Uhhh… one popcorn and two medium cokes,” he said reading over an interview with one of the other employees that worked that night.  
“Is there any recording of that?”  
“Lemme see… yes, the theater sent over everything from an hour before the girls showed up to an hour after the car drove off. What are you getting at?”  
“Maybe nothing, maybe another puzzle piece… can you pull up their transaction?” Gideon put the VHS into the VCR and fast forwarded until he saw the Wright sisters in line at the snack counter.   
“Is there any way to enhance that clip? And enlarge it?”  
“I’ll send it to there techs, they’ll probably be able to do something with it. But why Aaron? What did you see?”  
“The answer to how they knew they would be leaving the theater. I think at least one of their drinks was tampered with.”


	6. And Now, the Hard Parts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying not to get too graphic so there will be fewer scenes where the sisters are being held and more of the investigation, I will put warnings if I can't get around that. For example, mentions of an adult masturbating in front of a child in this chapter. Not super graphic but it's there.

What the? Mary thought as she regained consciousness. She tried to force herself to remember what had happened but was drew a blank, her thoughts came slow and sluggish bathed in a hazy fog. She tried to rub her face but couldn’t move her arms, she tried to tug harder but they were tied firmly above her head, she tried to sit up but her feet had weights on them holding them firmly to the floor. She was trapped. She tried to scream but there was a gag in her mouth, she tried to spit it out but it was tied firmly around her head. Fuck. She opened her eyes but everything was black. Was she blind?? No, well maybe, but there was something over her eyes. A sack? So she wasn’t sure. The hell? Why can’t she remember?   
Breathe. Just take a deep breath. Just pretend like this is a crime show or mystery novel. The first 48 hours are the most important right? A bit hungry but not starving, like when you went hiking with your Girl Scout Troop last year and got lost. So you’ve only skipped one-maybe two meals? After taking in how bruised and tired you feel. So you were in a fight then. Eye feels like the time you went at it with Paul Westerby, probably black and swollen. At least one rib is broken if the how hard it is to breathe is anything to go by, can’t tell if the head problems are from being drugged or a concussion but the effects are the same. Can’t tell if my lips are swollen with a gag in my mouth but they probably are and at least one shoulder is dislocated and either I have broken fingers or I’m missing a few of my nails from the way my hands are hurting. Good, I fought back, I hope I made whoever did this bleed.   
“Ugh,” came a groan from above her and the sounds of restraints being tugged and the creak of a bed. Faith. Shit. And with that, the events came slamming back into Mary’s memory. The movie, Faith getting sick, the fight, flopping around in the trunk of a car. Faith’s tied to a bed, probably by the guy that’s been on a murdering, raping rampage. Faith! Tied to a bed. Oh crap. Oh crap. Mom is going to kill me. Even if we get rescued it won’t matter cuz I’m gonna be dead anyway. Breathe. Someone heard you, the police will have been notified and probably even the FBI or state troopers or something. They’ll find us. Someone will find us. But what if they're too late? And what are we supposed to do until then? I refuse to be some damsel in distress doing nothing but sighing as I await a knight in shining armor (in this case a white guy in a suit) to save me from my tower (well this might well be a tower but it’s probably a basement or abandoned house or something).  
There’s got to be something I can so to get Faith out of here or at least make it easier to find us… Like a computer or radio or a phone or something. Didn’t Mr. Fitz say that the government could track computer signals or something? At the very least I know enough Morse code to send an SOS if I can figure out a radio transmitter. Or break a window and steal their car/run like hell. I need more info, for all I know, there aren’t any doors in this room or the people that took us have friends. Play the part they’re expecting. Scared, underachieving, older sister.   
They probably don’t know about your stint as a wrestler or your failed attempt at scouting or your habit of getting bullies relocated or that one time you blew up chem lab because Mr. Ronan was making eyes at Jessica Tibits. No one knew it was on purpose, except maybe Jessica but her being nice to you after that was probably a coincidence. And Mr. Ronan wouldn’t dare to say anything if he ever stopped thinking with his dick long enough to realize that she wasn’t actually that big of an idiot. She wasn’t as smart as her sister, but she wasn’t as dumb as people thought she was. Just do what you do best, analyze the situation, create a plan and then execute the plan. Maryanne’s thoughts were interrupted by the squeak of an old staircase, the huffing of a smoker catching their breath, footsteps, and the opening of a door. She froze and heard her sister do the same.  
_________________________________________________________________________________  
“When I woke up my head was fuzzy and my body hurt. I couldn’t move my arms or legs and I got a sharp pain in my chest when I breathed too hard. I had a gag in my mouth and a bag over my head. I thought I was blind. I couldn’t remember what happened until I heard my sister groan from somewhere above me as she came to and struggled against her own chains. Eventually, he came in.” Maryanne said dispassionately.  
“And if you could just identify who came in for the sake of the record?” asked a lawyer.  
“Him,” she said pointing at the defendants' side.  
“Let the record show that Ms. Wright has identified Mr. Bates. You may continue.”  
“He didn’t rape her that first time. He just stood there. At the end of the bed. I could smell him, he reeked of cigarette smoke and fast food. It wasn’t until I heard his pants drop and him start to moan that I realized what he musta been doing. I could hear my sister sobbing and him whispering to her not to cry once he finished. I heard him move and my sister jerk. He just chuckled and said she would change her mind before he left again. It was late afternoon when he came back. His partner- That one,” she said pointing to the other man on the defendant's side.  
“Let the record show that Ms. Wright has identified Mr. Cooper.”  
“His partner took the sack off my head and removed the gag long enough to pour water and soup down my throat. It was pointless because swallowing hurt enough that I didn’t want to try talking. I learned that I wasn’t blind at least. Most of the time they forgot I was there. My torture was listening to what they did to my sister,” she choked out. “I’m sorry. I can’t. I can’t. They. Oh God. My baby sister,” she said starting to sob into her hands. Someone handed her a glass of water and she flinched before taking it from them. She sniffed it and put her finger in it to taste it causing a few people to chuckle. She smiled warily shrugging, “can’t be too careful.” The audience’s strangled chuckle betrayed their relief at the brief moment of levity amidst the nightmare Mary’s testimony was painting. Figuring it was safe enough she finished the glass and handed it back, forcing herself to relax before she began the truly horrific parts.   
“If you need to step down you are under no obligation to finish Ms. Wright. The court would understand if you were unable to finish your testimony, or simply needed to stop for the day,” the judge said to Maryanne with more gentleness then they had shown thus far during the proceedings.   
“If I don’t finish now I’ll never finish and If I walk away it’s like telling them they beat me. That they won. I’d be as good as dead then your honor. They already took my sister and my sleep from me. I can’t let them take this from me. I want to look them in the eyes as they burn, as the world learns of what kind of slum they are. Who else do it? Everyone else is dead. They killed them.”  
“Objection your honor. The death of the other Wright has no correlation to this case,” the defendant's lawyer said unenthusiastically.  
“Objection sustained. The jury is to disregard the last statement.”  
“Just because she didn’t die at their hands doesn’t mean she isn’t dead because of what they did to her. Her death is as much their fault as all the others they are accused of.”  
“Objection your honor.”  
“Ms. Wright is reminded to refrain from accusing the defendants of unsubstantiated claims.”  
“Fine. Everyone else is dead either as a direct result of being murdered or do to lasting psychological damage that was the direct result of being kidnapped, raped, beaten and all around tortured. And I didn’t name names, so there.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will post as I can, it's not that I don't want to but imagining what's happening makes me feel icky and thusly write slow.


	7. How I met Your Mother

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gideon and Hotchner meet the victims' mother, and it doesn't go according to plan.
> 
> Warning for hints of child neglect, and (brief) racist language.

“Mrs. Wright, we understand that this has been an extremely difficult time for your family and we are doing everything we can to find your daughters, we just need to ask you a few questions about them,” Gideon says sitting across from the well-dressed women. A low coffee table placed between them and Hotcher next to him on the couch looking as uncomfortable as he felt. Men speaking Spanish coming in and out of the house carrying a variety of the Wright’s possessions so that they could replace the carpeting.  
“It’ll help us to determine when they crossed paths with the UNSUBs, was it a contractor, or a substitute teacher at their school?” Hotchner continues trying to hold the women’s attention from where she kept looking every time someone walked by.  
“Have you had any work done on your home prior to the girls' disappearance? Noticed anyone working on the block?”  
“Did either of your children mention anyone following them, or taking any special interest in them?”  
“No… no… no…. Nothing like that. Faith would never talk to strangers, and she always got rides from friends. We had our cabinets updated but that was over a year ago,- Be careful with that! It’s an antique!” Mrs. Wright says as two men round a corner holding a large table between them, “I’m sorry agents but I’m going to have to cut this interview short, you can call my husband if you have any more questions. Hey, what did I just say! Idiots. Hola. Comprende English! I said to be care-ful with that! Do you comprende? Careful! Ugh! I told my husband not to hire foreigners! Unreliable! But we wanted Faith’s room to be all done for when she gets back, last time I exchange speed for good old fashion American labor,” she muttered stalking off to go yell at the people moving things around her house.  
“Okay then…” Gideon mutters exchanging a look with his partner. “We should really do these at the station from now on.”  
“It’s like she thinks her kids are simply at an extended sleepover,” Aaron muttered as he and Gideon stood up.  
“And she never mentioned the older daughter, only Faith,” Jason said as he went to look around the room. “Look at this, Faith’s trophies and pictures are everywhere, Mary’s all seem to be afterthoughts…”  
“And none of them are on the mantel or the higher shelves, they all seem to be at a child’s height…”  
“You think one of them put Mary’s pictures up themselves?”  
“I want to see their rooms,” Hotchner said suddenly standing straight up from where he had been hunched over a picture frame. Gideon just shrugged and gestured for his partner to lead the way up the staircase, dodging around contractors and antiques to two rooms across the hall from each other, the one on the left is covered in trophies and awards, impeccably neat except for a stack of books and some note paper on the desk. The bed a four-poster queen, made up with exacting corners and plain pink sheets and a thick duvet. The bookshelf and organized mix of textbooks and magazines, with not a page out of place. The room across the hall seemed just wrong in comparison. Smaller, with wood paneling on the walls and floor, it felt more like a converted office than a 14-year-old’s bedroom, the only things betraying that it belonged to a teenager were the piles of clothes, an unmade twin bed in the corner with Star Trek sheets on it and the band posters on the walls. The rest of the furniture, from the beat-up wooden desk to the lamp in the corner said ‘office space.’ When two took a closer look it seemed like it was still used as an office, that or Maryanne was really into tax returns for a stack of them were on the desk, along with a framed picture of a man a child.  
“Mr. Wright and Maryanne?”  
“No… the kid’s holding an award for a… science fair? It must be Faith. Looks fairly recent too.” Gideon took apart the frame to look at the date and a stack of similar photos fall out from behind it. All depicting Faith and her father at a science expo. “These all seem to be the same event, check it out, February 25th, same day every year. That’s weird.”  
“What?”  
“Isn’t that Maryanne's birthday?”  
“I think so why?”  
“I don’t know, just seems weird that in none of the photos we’ve seen they seem to be celebrating it.”  
“Maybe the mom stays home with her while the other two go to this expo?”  
“Maybe… you’re probably right. It’s probably nothing…” Gideon said trailing off uncertainly as he put the frame back together. “Maybe one of them kept a journal or something? If someone gave them the creeps that would be where they would talk about it right?”  
“So where would they hide them. Assuming that either of them are diary people.”  
“The younger one… I don’t think so. The older one, seems to be the type, loose floorboard maybe? Definitely hidden but someplace easily accessible if her father does work from here.”  
“Under the bed maybe…” Hotchner trailed off as he looked around the room, his posture changing just enough to tell his partner that he was in profiler mode. Gideon followed but choose to crouch on the floor and look for anything that indicated that it was lifted/moved frequently or was large/bulky enough to be a hiding place.  
“You know we could be doing this for nothing. And say we find a diary or something similar, who's to say that she wrote anything relevant in it?”  
“I just have this feeling…” he just received a sigh in response and the two continue to try and figure out where a teenager would hide something in a room where at least one adult was regularly present.  
“Got it!” Gideon calls a little while later as he lifts up a wooden board that was hidden by the bed and partially covered by clothes the only thing distinguishing it from the others was a tiny tic mark in the corner. “Damn…”  
“What?” Hotchner says crouching next to him, they both tense for a moment when they hear a clash and Mrs. Wright yelling but quickly relax again when it becomes apparent that she was too absorbed in her yelling to realize that they were still on the premises.  
“Paperwork. From school. It seems like she’s been forging her parent's signatures and hiding the evidence. She was tested by her school psychologist, kids hovering at above average intelligence, off the chart for pattern recognition and verbal skills but low in everything- she was tested for dyslexia… are these her medical files…? How’d this kid make it to high school Aaron? She’s smart but her tests show that she has indicators pointing towards several learning disabilities, they all say further testing required but it seems like it never happened…”

 

“A money jar. With… 20….30...60…$150ish dollars in it…?” Hotchner said counting the cash and estimating the loose change.  
“Diary,” Jason said as he pulled out a thin notebook from the bottom of the hole. “All this and she doesn’t even bother locking it?” he opens the book and they both begin to scan, trying not to read any personal entries and just find one related to the case. “Here.”

“Hello Journal! Not really feeling the writing spirit but lord forbid I skipped a day, if I ever become famous my adoring fans will want the blow by blow to my drab childhood, and if I’m ever murdered someones bound to care about how I spent my last days. Ha! Faith’s the only one that would notice and that would still involve getting her away from a textbook long enough. The kid would miss the end of the world if she was studying. Anyway, I refuse to let this be another day where I just talk about my sister. Well, only about her reading habits anyway. The Science expo was today, obviously, same day every year. Left home again like every year, celebrated my 14th birthday with a Star Trek marathon and stale popcorn! Just kidding, I went to school. Ms. Robinson wished me a Happy Birthday and Mr.Johnson was sick so we didn’t have to run laps in gym today! Best Birthbay Ever! Mom and dad gave me $20 bucks and a new copy of Lord of the Rings (well new to me. I’m just gonna pretenb not to notice the well worn pages and foret the $0.10 sticker I peeled off the front. It’s new to me and that’s what matters!) to make up for the one she gave to Ethan to teeth on when him and Aunt Eli visited last year. Faith called a bit ago to say that she won! Go Faith!! I knew you could do it! I’m so proud of my little sister. She sounbeb so ha99y journal! She saib that some cree9y bube a99roacheb her afterwarbs to say congrabulations but she got qulleb away before he coulb say anythinq else. Well she mostly just saib that he smelleb like a chain smoker, coulb afforb to lose a hunbreb 9ounds, & wore sunqlasses insibe, &that his smile mabe her skin crawl. She says that she hasn’t seen him since & I told her too qet secnrity or somethinq if she bib. Spring Breaks just a few weaks away! And I no that wiuter break was a thing, but that was well over to months ago & I’m alreaby well behinb in my school work, & s9ring preak meaus that Faith mill fiually have some free tiwe! wow anb bab will de who nose where & yeah Faith shoulb de at her frieubs 9lace dnt Blockdnster &cauby is a trabitiou that me doth refnse to let qo of. Auymay, I qot a test two stuby fore & leftovers two iuhale so that pe it fore the bay.  
~Maryane  
Oh! I almost forgot, Faith updateb my warbrode before she left! Which would explain where my Springsteen shirt went…” 

“Twenty dollars?? They gave their kid twenty dollars and replaced something they ruined, with a version that cost pennies and was already worn, then left her alone? If they had fewer antiques I wouldn’t even notice but- ugh. And how could they not notice that she has a problem with reading and writing? The first half of the entry is a little sloppy but fairly decent, the letters shaped slowly and with care, then she starts to write faster and it gets jumbled, that's not stupid.”  
“Steady Aaron. That’s not the focus right now. We can worry about their home life once we ensure that they have lives for us to worry about. Now, it seems like Faith met at least one of the UNSUBS at the expo. Which means…”  
“That someone else might have seen him too. We can’t ask the mom without revealing the journal but we could track down people at the expo.”  
“Let’s go.” They finish flipping through the journal for any more clues, and upon finding none, hesitate for a moment, debating what they should do with the items before both silently agreeing to put them back as they found them and to worry about the repercussions of their other discoveries later. Sneaking out of the house was surprisingly easy considering how crowded with contractors it was, one of the men had spotted them on their way out and distracted Mrs. Wright for them while another showed them to a back entrance, only holding a finger to his lips when they went to thank him and then just nodding to him when he winked at them once before heading back inside, working with the other tired contractors to keep the lady of the house busy while the two agents snuck away.  
“And that’s why you should always be nice to the people doing work for you,” Gideon said breaking the silence that had taken over the car while they drove and the recent events got processed. Hotchner starts to chuckle and Gideon is quick to follow suit.  
“Or they might help sneak two federal agents who were snooping abound your children's rooms out of your house?” Hotchner asks between bursts of laughter. The two continued in this fashion only collecting themselves when they pulled into the stations parking lot. “When we finish this-”  
“We find the girls and then we’ll deal with the parents,” Gideon said in a way that promised destruction to anyone that tried to stop him or that got in his way. Aaron takes one look at his partner and sometimes friend and nodded, trusting the older agent to not simply rescue the girls from one monster and leave them with another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am late and I am sorry. My schools' internet is trash and this chapter gave me problems. Thanks for reading! and let me know if I messed up late 80's early 90's slang or dyslexia.
> 
> Comments/suggestions/etc are always appreciated! (and have been rumored to move the process along faster)  
> (I'm not exactly sure how I want to write the next few chapters so if anyone has a preference for who they want to see more of let me know)
> 
> I'm thinking that this part of the story should be about 10-15 chapter in total. Once I've finished posting I'll edit this work and get started on the next part (so late Novemberish) and will aim to start posting the next part mid Januaryish.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	8. Bored Teen Breaks the Case Wide Open

“Perfect! Thank you so much for your help. Yes, yes. Uh huh. Thank you,” Hotchner said as he squeezed more notes onto an already full pad of paper, he thanked the person again and hung up the phone. “Finally, I think we have how they find their victims. They were all winners of competitions shortly before they were taken. I got most of the venues to send their security footage over and if we’re very lucky we should see the UNSUBs there.”

“We’re running out of time Aaron, we have less than 3 hours to find them," Gideon said causing Hotchner to visibly deflate, shoulders slumping forwards as his hands gripped the table in front of him.

“We’ll find them. We have to," he whispers more as a prayer then anything else.  
______________________________________________________________

“Packages for Agents Hotchner and Gideon?” Came a voice from the door carrying a box under one hand and a clipboard in another.

“That’s us. You can just put them down right here,” Gideon said dismissively without looking up from the file in front of him.

“Righteous dude. I’m just going to need you to sign here while my guys bring in the rest,” the delivery guy said as he handed the clipboard over to Gideon. Gideon signed the paper quickly before returning to his file, trying to find something they had missed. “In here guys,” he calls over his shoulder waving in a half dozen or so people all carrying stacks of boxes. Soon the cardboard boxes were stacked 5-6 high all over the room. Gideon only barely registered the commotion, completely engrossed in his notes.

“Woah Gideon, what is all this?” Hotchner asked upon entering the room after coming back from taking another look at the crime scenes.

“Video from the science fairs I believe,” he replied without looking up. Hotcher rubbed a hand over his face and closed his eyes for a moment.

“We have 45 minutes and a hundred videos to watch.”

“Then we should probably get started then.”

“We need more people,” Hotchner states. Gideon stood up and walked over to the door in silence ignoring his partners questioning face as he walked to the door and leaned his head out and called; “Can we have a few more VCR players and as many people as can be spared?” he waited until his words registered and those in the precinct started to dash around before he sat back down and continued looking at the file. Hotchner shook his head and silently handed boxes to the people who were suddenly lined up at the door when everyone had one he started in on what was left. The whole precinct sat in silence, everyone holding their breaths as they watched the clock and looked at screens for anything that could give them a break in the case.

Ding. Ding. Ding. The timer rang, echoing through the building. Time was up.

“Ignore it. We keep watching. There are already officers out looking for potential dumpsites. Their deaths mean nothing if we lose focus. Keep watching the videos. Markdown, time codes of suspicious activity, and where our vics appear. Call us over if you see the UNSUB make contact. Don’t just follow the vics, follow everyone they come into contact with and ID them. Track down alibis, I don’t care if you think little Susie is safe, you make sure you know where she was the night of all the abductions. Alright?” Gideon finished as he gave the room a once over, making sure that he made eye contact with everyone he could before returning to the conference room and their own stack of tapes. “Rossi would’ve figured this out by now.”

“Rossi would’ve profiled these guys a minute after the second body was found.”

“And there’s no chance of him coming back?”

“Maybe, someday, but for now we’re on our own. Besides, the Federal Bureau of Investigation can’t afford to hire the infamous ” Aaron joked.

“Not after last time they can’t anyway.”

“Got something!” called a voice from down the hall interrupting the two’s banter. They spared each other only a quick glance before they took off running out of the room and down the hall to where the voice called from. Inside the room was 3 people in front of two screens on opposing sides of the room.

“Everyone, continue watching the tapes,” they called out to the forming crowd. The two from the left side of the room go back to their monitor leaving the girl on the right alone.

“Hello…”

“Jessica. My mom’s one of the lab techs and I was stopping by with her lunch when you called for all hands on deck. I got nothing else to do so I volunteered. Sides’ my mom says that I’m extremely ‘detail oriented’ or whatever so I figured I outta do somethin’ ya know. And they’re like my age or whatever. But that doesn’t matter what does matter is that I think I found the guy. Like 98% sure. I was tracking the girl's movements and marking all the people that match the Medford Malison and Co’s general descriptions and then went back and followed each one from entry to exit,” as she talked she played the video, fast forwarding until she hit the correct time code and then paused it.

“Damn,” Gideon said, his eyes widening in recognition when Jessica blew up the black and white frame.

“That’s what I said. I couldn’t see his face at the initial contact point, but my guess is that he didn’t know that they had just added a camera in the parking lot. If I had access to other cameras in the area I could probably figure out where he was coming from/went after this. And look. It’s the same car that you guys got in front of the movies or whatever. That’s what made me sure that he wasn’t just a science fan or something.” 

“Gideon….” Hotchner trailed off as he rubbed his hands over his face. Gideon just responded with a look, otherwise ignoring his partner in favor of keeping the operation moving forward. 

“Jessica. Talk to Detective Rawlings about getting a warrant for more security videos, then go through the rest of the videos, he’ll most likely follow the same pattern, or his partner will, so use that to narrow down the tapes and times you have to look through. If anyone gives you a problem just tell them that while they’re wasting time arguing about propriety two girls lives are in jeopardy, if that doesn’t work well, you seem smart, I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

“Awesome. Okay. I can do this," she said as she organized her piles and stood from her seat, trying to steel herself for asking people twice her age to listen to her. "What are you two going to be doing?”

“Oh us? We’re ready to deliver the profile.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I'm two weeks late. I got writer's block like nobodies business. I'll try to get an extra chapter out this week to make up for it. No promises but I will try to get something up.
> 
> As always hit me up if I got something wrong/you have an idea/are confused/feel like chatting.


	9. Chapter 9

Day 5  
“Faith. It’s going to be okay. I have a plan. I’ll get us out of here. I promise. Just hang on for me okay? Please, Faith.”  
“Annie,” Faith said voice breaking. “Hurts.”  
“I know it hurts. I’m sorry Faith. I’m so sorry. Just hang on a little longer. Please. I-I-I need you to hang in there.”  
“I’ll try Annie. Love you.”  
“Love you too Faith. I love you too. Just-” whatever she was about to say was cut off by the opening of what could only be the front door. They both groaned silently to themselves and pretended to be asleep and dazed as the sound of heavy feet on the wooden stairs and the out of breath panting of a heavy smoker reached their ears.   
__________________________________________________________________________

“I don’t, like, get it?” Jessica asked while blowing a bubble with her gum.   
“What’s she even doing here?”  
“What don’t you get?” Gideon asked ignoring the officer.  
“God, we don’t have time for this, I didn’t join the force so some dumb blond could waste time with stupid questions.”  
“Officer McMaggen, Jessica is here because we asked her to be. And now she’s asking a question which is well within her right. Need we remind you who got us this far, to begin with? And if we’re basing worthiness on how much time they’ve wasted than you’re the least worthy one here. Jessica?”  
“Hm??”  
“Your question?”  
“Oh! Right! Like, um, I just don’t, like, get it. You know?”  
“What don’t you get?”  
“Like, all of it? Like, we’ve been totally like focused on why they picked these vics and all and like trying to figure out like what’s so like special about the Wright sisters? But like, how did they find each other? They’re from like two totally different backgrounds or whatever right? Our UNSUBs I mean? And like they never had a reason to like meet or anything right? So how did they?” she asked with a twirl of her hair while leaning back in her chair. “And how did they like decide to start like kidnapping and murdering kids or whatever? Like did they take an ad out in the paper or something? Talk about their fantasies in like a support group thing? Like, I just don’t get how two seemingly average guys like decided to do this, together. You know?” Jessica finished with a pop of her gum. The officers in the room sat in silence while the two agents shared a look.  
“Of course.”  
“How did we miss it?”  
“We were so focused on the victims…”  
“That we forgot the UNSUBS.”  
“Nice work Jessica,” Gideon said shooting her a quick smile before putting his serious face back in place and turning to address the department as a whole. “Okay, now dig into their pasts, a lot of it should be public record, but be discreet, we’ve been working under the assumption that the girls are alive, but that could change at any time, especially if they get spooked. What are you waiting for? Move it, people. Except… Jessica, could you stay back for a moment?” Gideon said as the room started to empty, eventually leaving just the three of them.  
“I’m sorry I interrupted. You guys let me sit in and then I go and cause you problems with the locals-” she cut herself off when Gideon held up his hand.  
“Jessica did you know that you used filler words three times as frequently when talking to the other officers as you do with us.”  
“You also increase how frequently you play with your hair, and blow bubbles with your gum, not to mention that your posture-”  
“Okay, I get it. What’s your point?” Jessica interjected effectively stopping him from continuing what seemed to be an extensive list analyzing her behaviors.  
“Have you ever thought about becoming a behavioral analyst?”  
“Huh?”   
“Behavior analysis. Have you ever thought about studying it?”  
“Uh. No? I was planning on going into public relations.”  
“Well, when the time comes,” Gideon said pulling a business card out of his pocket to hand to her. Time seems to freeze, leaving Gideon with his arm outstretched, a white card, no bigger than someone's palm, sticking out from between his fingers. Both men held their breath as Jessica stared at the card and bit her lip before finally taking it from his fingers after what seemed like an eternity.  
“This isn’t me agreeing to anything,” she warned as she wagged a finger at them. Gideon just smiled in response and inclined his head briefly in her direction to concede the point to her.  
“We have been saying that we wanted someone to talk to the media for us, hadn’t we Hotch?”  
“I do believe I remember that Gideon. It would have to be someone we trusted though, who understood the ins and outs of talking to people that have agendas.”  
“Someone young, who cared about doing the right thing, someone people would trust just by looking at them..”  
“You two are very bad men. I hope you know this,” Jessica grinned and shook her head.  
“We know,” Hotchner and Gideon chorused returning her smile briefly before quickly sobering up as they remembered why they were all there in the first place.  
“Okay right. Where do you two want me? My mom doesn’t get off for another few hours so I’m all yours,” she said as she clasped her hands together and rocked on the balls of her feet.  
“Right, well, if you could look back over everything we have so far and make notes/theories that would be great. You’ve shown that we need a fresh set of eyes and perspective on this case. We’ve gotten too into a routine and we’re missing things. Talk to whoever you need to look at whatever you need to if someone tries to stop you just tell them to talk to us.”  
“Right. Okay. No pressure or anything. You got this Jessica. Deep breath. Okay. First. Go through every timeline, starting with the first one and then go from there. No detail is too small,” she muttered to herself as she walked away from the two agents and into a conference room that was covered in evidence and got to work. Gideon and Hotchner share a small smile at the teenager's enthusiasm before going back to work themselves.


	10. Til Death do us Part

Day 7  
“Faith. You awake?”  
“Mnf.”  
“Good enough. Now. We have about an hour before they come back so if we wanna move we have to do it now alright?”  
“Mm.”  
“Okay. Okay. Now. I just gotta get outta of these cuffs and get yours off of you. And then get us outside and find help. We can do this.” Mary said as she started to work on untangling her arms from the radiator. “You can do this Mary. You have too.”  
___________________________________________________________________________________  
“I got it!” Jessica yelled jumping up from her desk. “I know where they’re being held!” Hotchner and Gideon hung up their respective phones and made their ways over to table Jessica had commandeered. “Okay, so, only a handful of businesses had cameras, which is totally not tubular, they’re like the future, but whatever, I managed to piece together what there was while adding in footage of him from public appearances and whatnot and then cross-referencing with financials and the like. I got an ID on the unknown and he’s one Johnson Fitz, 34 chain smoking ex-marine with a dishonorable discharge and a bad heart. Damn, that sounds cool. Anyway they met at a fundraiser as far as I can tell and, they tried to hide it, but they bought land in Pemberton? Of all places,” she handed Gideon some papers absently without missing a beat. “And I checked with their Police Chief and they had someone to call the neighbors, not many of them, and most of them are growing pot but, they did ID the car, they didn’t watch the news so they didn’t know what to look out for but it’s definitely the same car. It’s not in the driveway as far as they can tell but thermal imaging shows two forms in the front of the house. SWAT’s just waiting for you two to tell them what to do. They’re on line 3.” The two agents just stared at the files while Jessica put her feet up on the desk and leaned back in her chair. “Also Detective James, the sexist butt, has been snorting crack. Pretty much the whole day, Detective Sccarro’s his supplier, by the way, he’s also been taking bribes. Like a lot of them. Thought you’d want to know.”  
“Well then,” Gideon said.   
“I’ll deal SWAT, you’ll deal with the detectives?” Hotchner asked Gideon.  
“That’s like, totally tubular man.”  
“No. Don’t. Say that. No,” Jessica said shaking her head and using her hands to motion for him to stop. Gideon looked at his partner for help but recieved the same response.  
__________________________________________________________________________________  
“Faith. Faith honey, you need to wake up, they’re gonna be back any second. Come on, we just have to get out the door,” Mary grunted in her attempt to pull her sister up from where she was slumped at the base of the stairs. To their left was a narrow hallway leading to the front door, in front of them was a living room piled high with odds and ends with a giant window showing the front lawn and street on the left wall and a dinky kitchen with a door leading out the back, off of its right. “Okay, I cannot get you out of here like this. Couch. I can get you to the couch and then call the police or something, anything to buy us time.” She picked up her sister and pulled her across the hardwood floor and onto an old couch littered with stains she desperately pretended didn’t exist. She patted Faith’s head and stumbled awkwardly into the kitchen to look for a phone, or a flare gun, she wasn’t picky.  
_________________________________________________________________________________  
“Alright. Everyone listen up. An initial drive-by showed two figures in the front bedroom and no car in the driveway. The nearest neighbors are a quarter mile down the road but were able to ID the car. We have tactical teams set up around the property, we’re waiting for the perps to get back to go in so that they don’t disappear on us,” Gideon said silencing the gathered agents and officers. They were stationed in the woods across the street from the house using a dilapidated barn to block the view of themselves from the road. SWAT teams were hiding in the brush around the property and in what trees they could, the local police along with the BAU were among those hiding in the woods. Agents Gideon and Hotchner were crouched in front of the gathered team, equipped with their guns, binoculars and a stick to draw their plan into the ground.   
“We move when they exit the car, SWAT will surround them before they enter the house, we enter and get the girls out. They were here-” Gideon pointed to a spot on the sketch of the house, “when we checked last. As far as we can see there aren’t any boobytraps or explosives, but the bomb squad will go in first just to be safe. Our main priority is getting those girls out alive, at any cost. An ambulance is on standby at the neighbor's- they made it seem like they were having an emergency- and they will turn on its siren when they spot the UNSUBS car. We’re assuming they’ll come this way but we have people set up on the other side just in case. The men are to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Don’t be stupid, don’t try to play hero. Any questions? No. Good. Now get comfortable, it could be a long night,” Gideon finished with a nod to those gathered before they all dispersed and took their positions to wait for the fun to start.  
“I feel like we’re missing something,” Hotchner muttered to his partner awhile later, eyes never straying from their locked position on the house across the street.  
“We got everything, every avenue is covered. The house matches our profile right down to the broken mailbox. The girls are in there.” Gideon said just as quietly placing his hand briefly on the younger man's shoulder.  
“It’s not that. The two of them, the length of time. That’s two huge changes in M.O that we never figured out. Something changed. And I got a bad feeling that it’s important,” he paused for a while and ran a hand through his hair, deep in thought as he turned the case over in his mind, looking for a detail that he missed. The two lapsed into silence, one turning over an impossible problem and one letting his partner put his finger on what was missing, trusting him to figure it out. The silence stretched on as the sun started to inch ever closer to the tops of the trees. “Damn.”  
“What?”  
“There’s a third partner. We gotta go. Now!” The order was passed along the radio as the teams stormed the house. BANG. BANG. BANG.  
__________________________________________________________________________  
“Hello there,” came a gravelly voice from behind Mary, causing her to grab the nearest thing to her hand and turn around. What she found was a man in his late 20’s, wearing only low riding jeans, no shirt, washboard abs and a smile that would cause the devil to cross to the other side of the street. He would’ve been attractive, even with a sharks smile, if it weren’t for the eyes. There was something about them that had Mary taking a step back and clutching a beer bottle in her hands for dear life. He lunged for her, she brought the bottle down on him, lodging shards of glass into his shoulder. “Oohh the slut’s got a bite. You won’t for long.” He went to grab her by the hand just as she grabbed a plate off the counter and whacked him across the face with it, he grabbed her by the arms and she twisted to knee him in the groin before she dropped out of his clutches. She saw a gun in the waistband of his pants and took the opportunity to grab it, shooting when he turned back towards her with a knife in hand. The door banging open as the UNSUB hit the ground, dead.  
“Hey. Mary right? It’s okay. I’m Agent Gideon. With the FBI. You’re safe now. You can drop the gun.”   
“He… he….” she stammered as Agent Gideon slowly walked towards her with his arms raised.  
“Found her sister, she’s on the couch. Pulse is weak but she’s alive! We need a bus here now!” Hotchner called from the living room as Gideon stood in front of Mary.  
“You’re sister’s gonna be okay. It’s all gonna be okay,” he said gently taking the gun out of Mary’s hand and put in onto the countertop. Mary sagged against him and started to sob. Gideon wrapped his arms around her and did his best to tell her it was going to be okay as EMTs came in to take her sister and the body out of the way, eventually carrying her out when she refused to let the EMT touch her. It was over. They were alive.


	11. End

“He came at me with a knife. I shot him. I’d never fired a gun before. I didn’t really know how, except for what I’d seen on TV. I didn’t even know that I’d hit him, so I just kept shooting. I was passed being scared, it was like I’d separated from my body, I didn’t want to die. Not there. Not like that. Not when we were so close. I don’t know what would’ve happened if the feds hadn’t arrived right then. I was out of plans. I can still see his body when I close my eyes. All that blood. I didn’t know people bled that much. It was awful.”  
“Thank you. You may retake your seat as the lawyers say their closing arguments,” the judge said. Mary shakily stood and made her way back to her seat. It was over. It was in the jury’s hands now.  
____________________________________________________________________  
“We find the defendants guilty. On all counts,” the jury member said causing Mary to sigh in relife. It was over.   
“The state of New Jersey thanks you for your service.”


End file.
